COUNTRY NEIGHBOR LURING AWAY PROFESSIONAL OFFICES FROM NEWARK

By ALFONSO A. NARVAEZ

Published: September 11, 1983

ROSELAND, a community of 5,000 residents in Essex County, about 10 miles west of Newark, is fast becoming an office center for lawyers, accountants and other professionals fleeing to a pastoral setting from inner-city problems.

Roseland is just off Interstate 280, and an office-building boom has been under way in this 3.5-square-mile community since the highway was finished in the mid-1970's. The new buildings offer esthetically appealing space in campus settings at rent comparable with top-of-the-line urban space - and in a crime-free atmosphere.

Federated Department Stores Inc. proposed in the early 1970's to build a large shopping mall on a 153-acre dairy farm here, Mayor Richard N. Leonard said, but residents turned them down and developed a master plan calling for office development.

''This area is unique,'' Mayor Leonard said. ''We're 35 minutes from Manhattan and Newark Airport, minutes away from the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. We have three cloverleaf intersections with Route 280 and we're 15 minutes away from the courts in Newark or Morristown.''

''There was considerable reluctance to leave Newark,'' said Howard S. Greenberg of Ravin, Greenberg & Zackin. The law firm occupies 7,000 square feet of space on the fourth floor of 280 Eisenhower Parkway, a five- story building by Cali Associates with an atrium and a six-foot waterfall. ''The firm had been there for 40 to 45 years,'' Mr. Greenberg said, ''and initially we anticipated staying there further. But certain problems impacted on the consideration. The traffic problems - getting in and out of Newark became more difficult. The safety factor made it difficult to find secretaries or even single lawyers who really felt comfortable staying in Newark late in the evening.

''The same thought impacted on clients, who were very reluctant to have night meetings that might run past the dinner hour, because they would have to worry about how long the walk was to their car and what they might encounter between our building and the parking lot.''

Mr. Greenberg, whose firm has about 25 employees, including seven lawyers, said that the Newark office was convenient to the Federal District Court where they did most of their work, but that the Roseland office was less than 15 minutes away. In addition, he said, when he has to work late now, he can have dinner with his family two miles away in Livingston and then return to the office.

Denise Perrine, Mr. Greenberg's secretary, had to give up taking public transportation to work from her home in Kearny, but has found that a small price to pay.

''I love it here,'' she said. ''It's very easy for me to get here and I feel more secure. When I was in Newark, I had to make sure I left work by 5 o'clock because it wasn't safe. There's pretty good security here.''

The flight of law firms to the suburbs has not gone unnoticed. Alfred L. Faiella, executive director of the Newark Economic Development Corporation, through which the city and the business community work to attract and keep business and industry, said steps were being taken.

''We're aware of it,'' he said of the moves to Roseland. ''We should have been building first-class office space five and six years ago, but the economics for it was not there. In the last three years, we've opened up additional first-class space and have more almost ready for occupancy.''

Mr. Faiella said that about 200,000 square feet of prime office space had been made available in recent years. The space being provided in Newark, however, is no match for the almost 2.2 million square feet of new office space opened or on the drawing boards in Roseland.

Ralph M. Lowenbach, of the firm of Orloff, Lowenbach, Stifelman & Siegel, another tenant in 280 Eisenhower Parkway, said the main reason his firm left Newark was a lack of adequate, contiguous space. The firm had been in Newark since 1975, first on Broad Street and then at the Gateway, but the cost of renovating available space made it as costly as new space in Roseland.

Another Newark expatriate in the building is Arthur Andersen & Company, a major accounting firm. Donald G. Schroeder, managing partner, said the firm could not find the space it needed in Newark. It took 35,000 square feet of space when it first moved to Roseland, but recently exercised an option to add 20,000 square feet, giving more room to its more than 200 employees.

Cali Associates completed the 238,000- square-foot building in 1980 for $12 million, Brant B. Cali said, and space rented for about $17 to $18 a square foot. ''We're full now,'' he said.

Newark had been home to the law firm of Lowenstein, Sandler, Brochin, Kohl, Fisher, Boylan & Meanor since 1938, and it moved to Roseland from its offices at 744 Broad Street only after four years of weighing the pros and cons of a relocation.

The firm, which has 67 lawyers and a total staff of about 150, now occupies 41,000 square feet at 65 Livingston Avenue in the 280 Corporate Center, a campus complex of six office buildings. A seventh is under construction by the Bellemead Development Corporation.

The firm was sharply divided over whether to leave the city, but in the end concerns about security for clients, staff and out-of-town visitors and an inability to come to terms with its landlord decided the matter.

Moving from Newark was particularly painful for Alan Lowenstein, the firm's senior partner. For many years, he had been a force behind efforts to revitalize the city.

''Reluctantly, the time had come that I had to think about the firm and not me,'' he said. ''Now, everybody is happy to be out there.''

Law and accounting firms and the companies that provide supporting services tend to cluster, he said. ''This is obviously becoming the most significant commercial center for professional corporations,'' he said.

A list of the corporate tenants at five of the buildings in the complex (the sixth is still being leased) points up this fact. There are about 60 commercial tenants, and 12 are law firms, 6 are accounting firms, 6 are in computer services and 6 are in insurance.

Robert R. Martie, assistant vice president of Bellemead, said space in the sixth building in the complex, 6 Becker Farm Road, is about 45 percent under lease. It is renting for about $18.50 a square foot, plus electricity.

MR. MARTIE said that the firm already had a major tenant signed to a lease in the seventh building, which is still under construction, and that there were three other buildings planned.

Hannoch, Weisman, Stern, Besser, Berkowitz & Kinney and its more than 200 employees, including 64 lawyers, will be leaving 40,000 square feet of space at 744 Broad Street in January 1985. The firm is moving to 72,000 square feet of space at 4 Becker Farm Road, a new building, the centerpiece of which will be a 5,000-square-foot skylit atrium with waterfalls and reflecting ponds.

''It was not at all an easy decision,'' said Bernard J. D'Avella Jr., managing partner of the firm. The firm has been in the city since 1912, he said.

''Newark means a great deal to us,'' Mr. D'Avella said. ''We are very involved and we intend to keep very much involved. Our roots in Newark are very deep ones.''

Newark offered the advantages of excellent rail and bus transportation, easy access by train to Manhattan, the proximity of the courts and a pool of employees, he said, but it did not have adequate, contiguous office space - space that would allow the firm to grow.

He added that the city's public image was so poor that many clients were reluctant to come to the office.

A study made for the firm showed that the legal center was moving away from Newark. ''It seems to be moving west,'' Mr. D'Avella said. ''It's been moving for some time. We don't want to be where it isn't.''

He said Roseland offered an appealing atmosphere and competitive rents. ''We were surprised to find that rents in Newark were sometimes more,'' he said.